Reliable high-speed Internet in San Miguel de Allende?

I am originally a California girl but I have lived in Spain for many years and I am now looking to relocate to Mexico. I spent 6 weeks in Mexico City in the fall to see how I liked it. It was a very interesting city, but yet not the city for me.

I am now looking into San Miguel de Allende. I've heard some lovely things about it. However, I have some concerns about the Internet. In theory I can be based anywhere, but for my job I need reliable, stable, high-speed Internet and I need to be able to plug my ethernet cable into the router. (I do a lot of teleconferences.) I actually almost lost my job in the past because I rented a place where the Internet wasn't stable enough. I can't have that happen again!

I was wondering if those of you located in San Miguel de Allende could tell me about the Internet situation there. Do you think I could find an appropriate house or apartment rental that works for me Internet-wise, or do you think I should look elsewhere in Mexico instead?

Re: [Mindy2013] Reliable high-speed Internet in San Miguel de Allende?

Let me preface my comments by saying that I do not live in San Miguel de Allende and have used the Internet there only when visiting friends. Others may have much more cognizant opinions about your questions.

The big question, I think, is what you consider to be high speed. Prodigy, the largest ISP in Mexico, provides what it deems to be 'high speed', but it is not what much of the Internet world considers to be speedy. Here's a link for Prodigy's standard residential service: http://www.telmex.com/mx/hogar/paquetes.html. For high-quality video transmission, you might well need more than the 10mbps rate.

Other, smaller providers offer higher speeds, but at a cost even higher than that of Prodigy. Totalplay, for example, offers up to 100mbps. Here's a link to their products: http://www.totalplay.com.mx/web/hipernet. Totalplay does not offer Internet to SMA; their service is only available in Mexico City, Toluca, and nearby locations.

My short-term personal experience of Internet reliability in SMA is that the connection dropped fairly frequently, admittedly for short periods of time--but those short periods of time would be enough to disrupt your video transmission.

Re: [Mindy2013] Reliable high-speed Internet in San Miguel de Allende?

I'm not a expert with regards to SMA Internet connections but when there for two months, in two different houses, last winter I did not experience difficulties with obtaining/keeping an Internet connection. Sometimes when one experiences 'drops' it has more to do with the specific telephone lines/modem at that location than a general statement of the whole locale.

Surely there is a better forum to determine Internet stability in SMA than Mexconnect (which has relatively few posters from SMA).

Re: [Mindy2013] Reliable high-speed Internet in San Miguel de Allende?

Hi Esperanza, I live in San Miguel and have high speed internet..wireless in my house which I own. I use Mega Cable for the service. It is reliable with only a few times when it is slow or off. I have heard that Telmex is less reliable. Mega Cable costs about 500 pesos a month which includes TV. Low speed internet is cheaper. If you are renting, you will be at the mercy of the landlord and the location of the router. We are online constantly though we are just retired. So don't choose elsewhere just because of internet. Tacito

Re: [Mindy2013] Reliable high-speed Internet in San Miguel de Allende?

I've rented an apt in a San Miguel colonia for the past 5 months - it's one of the "fringe" colonias not in el centro. My experience is that the connection speed is fine for my posting, skyping, etc. (I don't do video conferences, however). There are times (one or twice a day - most often around 10 pm to midnight) when I don't have access (I don't know if it's the router or other issues - the service and network are my landlord's, so I'm using his network, and he's not technically savvy).